1882 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



95 



be established. I spoke of the long and ex- 

 pensive quarrel between our two friends 

 Krock and Klasen, and prayed quite ear- 

 nestly that God would touch their liearts, 

 and make them conscious of their folly, that 

 the case might end at once, before it had be- 

 come a worse precedent than it was now, for 

 the bee and grape men of our land. I knew 

 that, if the prayer were answered, it would 

 throw our friend the lawyer out of a case ; 

 but I somehow felt as if he was with me in 

 heart in it. I remember thinking at the 

 time, that I seldom conlined my brief peti- 

 tions so closely to one single point as I had 

 that day. As I stopped abruptly, almost, I 

 had a sort of feeling, as I often do at such 

 times, that the prayer was acceptable. As 

 my work for the forenoon had been all inter- 

 rupted, many cares pressed me after dinner ; 

 and "When engrossed in t!iem, I forgot all 

 about the noon prayer. Well, as I sat there 

 by the window in tlie closet, this new lawyer 

 came up. 



*' Well, Mr. Koot, your prayer is answered." 



'' What prayer? " said I, flunking only of 

 my sad downfall of the last half-hour. 



'' Why, do you not remember what you 

 prayed for this noon? Krock and Klasen 

 have telegraphed for us to drop the case just 

 where it is, and come home. The telegram 

 came in just as w^e w^ere going up to dinner." 



God had heard and answered, once more ; 

 and this time he had honored my poor peti- 

 tion by making the matter plain to the sight 

 of men, wdiile I had dishonored my Savior 

 almost at the same hour, by letting my fool- 

 ish, w^eak pride, persuade me that I might 

 not have the honor I deserved. I tried to 

 say a few words to my new friend that might 

 help him to put his trust in God ; but the 

 awful inconsistency of such a course before 

 the book-keeper, who v.as busily at work 

 hard by, stopped the words in my throat. I 

 must lirst ask her pardon. Before I could 

 do so, however, a little note was pushed to- 

 ward me. In her nice clear handwriting, 

 even if it was on a scrap of paper, were, as 

 nearly as I can remember, these w^ords : 

 " Please, Mr. Boot, reconsider your decision 

 about those postals ; it will make us so much 

 trouble to mark them out and write them 

 over." Womanlike, sJie was not conquered, 

 even if she was silenced ; and, book-keeper- 

 like, she could not think of letting a '• Jan." 

 card go out marked " Dec." I was not 

 afraid then to say 1 was sorry ; but I felt 

 sad, and told her so, to think 1 had been led 

 into such foolishness. I hated to go to 

 Cieorge and acknowledge my weakness ; but 

 w-hen I told him after all that he might print 

 them January, he looked up smili)igly and 

 said he " did print them January long ago." 

 My plans for impressing them with a sense 

 of my importance had all gone to naught, for 

 none had obeyed, and none had been si- 

 lenced. They did riglit. They are both 

 earnest, faithful Christians, and they paid 

 me a greater compliment by doing as they 

 did, than by doing otherwise. They recog- 

 nized that a bad spirit had given that order, 

 and not I ; and in believing that my better 

 self would soon come uppermost, and ap- 

 prove of the course they took, they paid me 

 a compliment. Not I, but Jesus, my Savior, 



shall reign. Is it not unwise and dangerous 

 for one like myself to thus openly encourage 

 disobedience? It might be, if my trust were 

 not in God. In other words, I have no fear 

 that a single hand in my employ will ever 

 disobey, very far, orders that I give him in 

 my usual calm spirit. 



Several days had passed since the above, 

 and I was one evening in the office having 

 something of a talk with the boys, a few of 

 them, including George and Ernest. I had 

 not said any thing to George about the mat- 

 ter of the ]>ostals, only to tell him I was glad 

 he changed the dates", even though I direct- 

 ed otherwise. I had a sort of hope that he 

 did not see I lost my — balance that day, 

 and that, therefore, tlie less said about it the 

 better. Did you ever remark, that a drunk- 

 en man is always sure he was not so bad that 

 anybody could have noticed any thing differ- 

 ent? Well, I have a sort of theory that sin 

 is about the same in all its phases. The sin- 

 ner always thinks it was not so bad that 

 anybody noticed it. Once in a while, how- 

 ever, we have a Christian friend brave enough 

 and kind enough to tell us the plain truth. 

 Well, George was just such a brave and kind 

 friend to me. If any thing in life should 

 ever come up to persuade me that George is 

 not a good friend of mine, I shall try to look 

 back at that evening, and tell the tempter to 

 get behind me, for I know better. Ernest 

 had been gently chiding me for branching 

 out in business so much, and I was telling 

 the boys that I did it, mainly that needy 

 ones might have work, and in "tlie end, as I 

 hoped, souls be brought to Christ. George 

 here, with some apology, asked if he might 

 take the liberty of making a suggestion in 

 regard to the latter matter. I knew what 

 w^as coming, instinctively ; but I was very 

 gkul he had decided to broach the subject. 

 lie then reminded me of the occurrence. 



'' And so I showed it in my face, did I, 

 George, that I was vexed? " 



'• Why, to be sure, you did ; anybody could 

 see it." 



" I am very sorry indeed. I was really 

 not aware of it until I had spoken as I did." 



'' I presume I should not have done so, but 

 I told them in the composing-room what you 

 said, and they had a laugh over it, and quot- 

 ed your • GREAT BEACE.' " 



There you have it, my friends. I was not 

 one bit displeased to hear that George had 

 told them, in the other room, how I had fall- 

 en, nor do I feel hard toward the boys for 

 quoting '* great peace." when he who had 

 talked it so vehemently had fallen, and 

 shown he was •• but dust," after all. George 

 did not tell me any more, but my mind in- 

 stantly reverted to one in that office to whom 

 I once talked and recommended skepticism. 

 When I was converted, I tried to take it 

 back ; but there has always been a sort of 

 feeling that he thought he would wait, and 

 watch me a while, and see how I would " pan 

 out " in the new life. I do not know, but I 

 can imagine it was he who said '-great 

 peace." I know he did not mean to be un- 

 kind nor unfriendly, for I am sure you would 

 lind him a most warm friend and champion 

 of mine, if any real danger threatened, and 

 this is why I have felt so keenly the justice 



